Жолбов. Английский билеты. 4-5 курс / 4 курс Nationalism in the present-day world

35. Nationalism in the present-day world.

It goes without saying that the process of globalization is taking place in our modern world. The international community moves towards the idea of global unity which means disappearance of the borders in different spheres of human life. In connection with it, people of different nations are worried about the future of their countries, their cultural heritage – traditions, language, religion and so on. So, they try to protect their culture, values and national identity by returning to their roots, and by declaring that their nation is a unique one. On this basis the problem of increasing nationalism becomes a burning one. So, it’s obvious that nationalism is easily understood from the point of view of culture and ethnicity. And there are a lot of nationalistic movements in different countries all around the world. If we refer to history, we can see that nationalism is a political ideology that has originated and evolved since its emergence after the French revolution in 18 century. It is based on the conception of “community” which means common language, common religion, common race and common culture. In other words, it is based on homogeneity and standardization. The logic of nationalism threatens heterogeneous minorities within the nations.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia, the USSR, the civil wars in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and etc. show how dangerous nationalistic tendencies are. In connection with this, it is important to say that, in order to save the stability in any country, to prevent interethnic conflicts among the people, it is necessary to keep those nationalistic movements under control.